Random musings on life, society, and politics

Sometime I wonder why I do this. By “this,” I mean blogging. It takes up a lot of time. Figuring out what to say in each post I write. And, as important, how to say it. Finding the perfect image to include with each post.

And there’s the reading part. Reading what other bloggers have posted. Deciding whether or not to like their posts and to comment on them. And, if so, to compose the actual comments.

And prompts. There are word prompts, photo prompts, prose prompts, poetry prompts, prompts about song lyrics, daily prompts, weekly prompts, and random prompts. Reading the prompts, looking at the rules, deciding which ones to participate in and which ones to pass up. It takes a lot of time.

I have a life outside of blogging, you know. I live in the real world populated by flesh and blood human beings (and dogs and cats). I can’t spend all of my time blogging.

My wife knows me well enough to know that I could, if left to my own devices — hey, that’s funny; get it? My own devices, like my iPhone or my laptop? — become totally consumed by blogging. I do tend to have an addictive personality.

That’s why, last May, when I told her I wanted to start a new blog, she had a lot of trepidation. She knew how easy it would be for me to lose my real world connection and to be almost wholly consumed by the blogosphere.

So we negotiated a deal. She would not object to my starting a new blog if I promised to not spend more than two hours a day on blogging activities.

I agreed to that deal, figuring that I’m awake for maybe 12 hours a day. During those 12 hours, I am eating meals for maybe two hours a day, walking the dog four times a day for a couple of hours in total, watching TV, using the bathroom, doing other internet related stuff, reading the items that show up on my iPhone’s newsfeed way too often, and playing solitaire on my iPhone.

With all that, I probably couldn’t devote more than two hours a day to blogging anyway. But now I wonder if two hours is enough. I wonder if it’s time to renegotiate.

15 thoughts on “Time To Renegotiate”

Know where you’re coming from! I never thought anyone would be interested in little old me and what I had to write. Normal stuff comes first (housework, shopping, getting meals, walking the dog etc), then blogging. I often wonder what I’d be doing with my time if I didn’t!!

I double up a lot. I write when the TV is on unless I’m particularly interested in the show. I try to write in the morning, but if an idea grabs me, I’ll write it later — sometimes just the ideas in the hope that I’ll come back to it later and I’ll remember what it was I wanted to say. I don’t devote as much time to this as I did, but a lot more time than I ever thought I would.

But to be fair — I like writing and I always have. Writing is what I do. If I weren’t blogging, I’d be writing something else. Letters of short stories or essays or something. This way, at least people sometimes read me and I’m not merely talking to myself. And then, there is taking pictures. I have been a camera junkie since I was in my early 20s. I have rarely been without a camera and the few times I have been, I regretted it deeply.

These two things have been the angles of my life my whole adult life. Before computers, before electric typewriters. Even when I had to write with a pencil. On paper. I was going to be a writer — I think I always knew it. Even though I once hoped I’d be a cowboy or maybe a ballet dancer, bottom line — I would write.

I have tried to double up when watching TV. But then I lose track of what I’m watching and my draft posts don’t make a lot of sense when I proof them. I guess I’m a single-threaded kind of a guy. I can’t even chew gum and walk my dog at the same time!

Or (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) stop for a few days and pay an awful lot of attention to things, get in the way, muck things up (just a little), etc. It’s a tactic I’ve seen work many, many times. Just upset the apple cart and they send you packing just to get you out of the way. The risk is, of course, that the sent packing could also put you out the door and onto the street. there are limits to everything.